Lighting system, lighting device and lighting system configuration method

• US 10,368,424 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2016
• Issued: 07/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Inventors: Engelen, Dirk Valentinus Rene, Newton, Philip Steven, Aliakseyeu, Dzmitry Viktorovich, Van Gheluwe, Jochen Renaat, Clout, Ramon Antoine Wiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thuy V
• Application Number:
  US15/780,053
• Publication Number:
  US 20180352636A1
• Time in Patent Office: 978 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/02 Power saving arrangements in wired systems H04L12/12; signaling of mobile application services, e.g. low battery notifications H04W4/20
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/20 Controlling the colour of the light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/175 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A lighting system is disclosed for deploying dynamic lighting effects. The lighting system includes a plurality of lighting devices, each lighting device being adapted to deploy a portion of a dynamic lighting effect, a controller and a network communication module, each lighting device is communicatively coupled in a mesh network to at least one neighboring lighting device and adapted to communicate illumination state information to the at least one neighboring lighting device and a system controller adapted to broadcast a configurable dynamic lighting effect function to the plurality of lighting devices, said configurable dynamic lighting effect function defining the dynamic lighting effect to be deployed by the lighting system, wherein at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' respective controllers are adapted to configure the lighting device by configuring the configurable dynamic lighting effect function based on illumination state information received from at least one of the at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' neighboring lighting devices to facilitate deployment of its portion of the dynamic lighting effect, determining the at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' illumination state information from the configured configurable dynamic lighting effect function and communicating the determined illumination state information to at least one of the at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' neighboring lighting devices.

Claims

1. A lighting system for deploying dynamic lighting effects, the lighting system comprising:

a plurality of lighting devices, each lighting device being adapted to deploy a portion of a dynamic lighting effect and comprising a controller and a network communication module, the plurality of lighting devices being interconnected in a mesh network through their respective network communication modules such that each lighting device is communicatively coupled to at least one neighboring lighting device and adapted to communicate illumination state information to the at least one neighboring lighting device; and

a system controller communicatively coupled to the mesh network and adapted to broadcast a configurable dynamic lighting effect function to the plurality of lighting devices in the mesh network, said configurable dynamic lighting effect function defining the dynamic lighting effect to be deployed by the lighting system;

wherein at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' respective controllers in the mesh network are adapted to configure the lighting device by;

configuring the configurable dynamic lighting effect function based on illumination state information received from at least one of the at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' neighboring lighting devices to facilitate deployment of its portion of the dynamic lighting effect;

determining the at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' illumination state information from the configured configurable dynamic lighting effect function; and

communicating the determined illumination state information to at least one of the at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' neighboring lighting devices.

2. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein the at least some of the lighting devices'"'"' respective controllers in the mesh network are adapted to configure the lighting device in response to a controller of a master lighting device from the plurality of lighting devices:

generating random configuration information;

determine its illumination state information from the random configuration information; and

communicate the determined illumination state information to a selection of lighting devices in the lighting system.

3. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein the at least some of the lighting devices'"'"' respective controllers in the mesh network are adapted to configure the lighting device in response to a controller of at least one of the lighting devices:

receiving seed configuration information from the system controller or from a user;

determine its illumination state information from the seed configuration information; and

communicate the determined illumination state information to a selection of lighting devices in the lighting system.

4. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein at least part of the mesh network is a wireless mesh network.

5. The lighting system of claim 4, wherein the controllers of the plurality of lighting devices are communicatively coupled by the wireless mesh network and each is adapted to determine a relative position of a neighboring lighting device from a signal strength of a signal transmitted by the neighboring lighting device over the wireless mesh network.

6. The lighting system of claim 4, wherein at least some of the controllers of the plurality of lighting devices are communicatively coupled by the wireless mesh network and are adapted to communicate with neighboring lighting devices via an external bridge device.

7. The lighting system of claim 4, wherein the lighting devices'"'"' respective controllers are communicatively coupled by the wireless mesh network are adapted to periodically update the at least one of the lighting devices'"'"' neighboring lighting devices for communicating the determined illumination state information to.

8. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of lighting devices have a fixed position relative to each other, and wherein at least some of the lighting devices'"'"' respective controllers in the mesh network are adapted to configure the lighting device by configuring the configurable dynamic lighting effect function based on illumination state information received from at least one of the at least some of the lighting devices'"'"' neighboring lighting devices and the at least some of the lighting devices'"'"' position relative to said at least one neighboring lighting device and/or to the system controller to facilitate deployment of the at least some of the lighting devices'"'"' portion of the dynamic lighting effect.

9. The lighting system of claim 8, wherein each lighting device is a tile-shaped lighting device having a major surface comprising a plurality of pixels, wherein the determined illumination state information comprises illumination characteristics of a set of pixels along an edge of the major surface adjacent to an edge of the major surface of a neighboring tile-shaped lighting device targeted to receive the determined illumination state information.

10. The lighting system of claim 9, the determined illumination state information further comprising tracking information of a displayed object moving across the major surface of the tile-shaped lighting device.

11. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein the respective controllers are further adapted to ignore illumination state information received from at least one of the at least some of the lighting devices'"'"' neighboring lighting devices in case of previously received illumination state information associated with the configurable dynamic lighting effect function.

12. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the lighting devices further comprise an optical sensor coupled to its corresponding controller for determining illumination state information for a neighboring lighting device from the luminous output of the neighboring lighting device.

13. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein the respective controllers of the at least some of the lighting devices in the mesh network are further adapted to:

predict future illumination state information for a neighboring lighting device from the at least some of the lighting devices'"'"' determined illumination state information; and

communicate the predicted future illumination state information to the neighboring lighting device.

14. The lighting system according to claim 1,

wherein the controller of each lighting device is adapted to configure the lighting system by:

configuring a configurable dynamic lighting effect function based on illumination state information received from at least one of its neighboring lighting devices, the configurable dynamic lighting effect function defining the dynamic lighting effect to be deployed by the lighting system received from the system controller of the lighting system to facilitate deployment of its portion of the dynamic lighting effect; and

determining its illumination state information from the configured configurable dynamic lighting effect function; and

being further adapted to;

communicate the determined illumination state information to at least one of its neighboring lighting devices.

15. A method of configuring a lighting system for deploying dynamic lighting effects, the lighting system having a plurality of lighting devices, each lighting device being adapted to deploy a portion of a dynamic lighting effect and comprising a controller and a network communication module, the plurality of lighting devices being interconnected in a mesh network through their respective network communication modules such that each lighting device is communicatively coupled to at least one neighboring lighting device and adapted to communicate illumination state information to the at least one neighboring lighting device, and a system controller communicatively coupled to the mesh network and adapted to broadcast a configurable dynamic lighting effect function to the lighting devices in the mesh network, said dynamic lighting effect function defining the dynamic lighting effect to be deployed by the lighting system,

the method comprising the steps of:

configuring at least some of the plurality of lighting devices is in the mesh network using their respective controllers, by

configuring the configurable dynamic lighting effect function based on illumination state information received from at least one of the at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' neighboring lighting devices to facilitate deployment of its portion of the dynamic lighting effect;

determining the at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' illumination state information from the configured configurable dynamic lighting effect function; and

communicating the determined illumination state information to at least one of the at least some of the plurality of lighting devices'"'"' neighboring lighting devices.